Women Law Journals in the New Millenium: How Far Have They Evolved? And Are They Still Necessary?

Women Law Journals in the New Millenium: How Far Have They Evolved? And Are They Still Necessary?

Abstract

It is no secret that women are entering law school and the legal academy in significant numbers in the new millennium. And their numbers have been on the rise since the early 1970s. For those of us entering law school around that time, inspired by the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s, we firmly believed that the legal profession would become, in effect, more caring-for want of a better expression-because women were entering the profession in greater numbers. But alas, we could not have been more naYve. Male orientation of the law and male domination of the legal profession has relentlessly persisted into the twenty-first century.

On a more sanguine note, emerging voices have found expression in the proliferation of specialty journals being published in the latter part of the twentieth century. These journals are in sharp contrast to general or “flagship” journals which have traditionally been viewed as male oriented and, more particularly, white male oriented. In fact, some have always perceived the law in general to be white and male, not gender- or race- neutral as others in the profession, the academy, and even the judiciary would have us believe.